Nowadays, everyone seems to want to know how to meditate. From Baby Boomers to Gen X, from anxious teens to ageing retirees, from harried housewives to hurried executives, from heart-attack sufferers to weekend athletes, more and more people are seeking solutions for the stressful, time-urgent, overstimulated lives we lead.
Because the media and mainstream medicine have failed to provide satisfying answers, people are turning in increasing numbers to time-honoured practices like meditation for proven remedies to cure life’s ills.
To begin with, anyone who aspires to learn and practise meditation, acts upon the conviction that there is, beyond all the transitory, mundane and phenomenal world, a subtle realm of reality which can be experienced only by means or methods other than employed in the gross world.
Off lately, meditation has been studied extensively in psychology labs and reduced to formulas like the relaxation response. Yet, it has never entirely lost its spiritual roots.
In fact, the reason meditation works so effectively is that it connects you with a spiritual dimension, which different commentators give different names. However, in simple words, it can be described as a union of being - the soul with supreme being: Supreme Soul.
There is always a deep curiosity within people to know how long it take for someone to learn and start practising meditation.
Well! Practically speaking, one can learn the basics of meditation in just five minutes. Just sit down, be quiet, turn your attention inward, and focus your mind. That’s about it.
It’s as simple as that! However, to get a deep experience, one needs to follow certain steps which too are easy.
So, the first step before one starts meditation is to have a clear knowledge of Who Am I? Who is Supreme? And Where Have I Come From?
Once we understand that we are a Soul, which is an infinitesimal point of conscient and immortal light, and that mind, intellect and predispositions or samskara are its three inherent and everlasting faculties which are three aspects of manifestations of consciousness, we start to lose our physical identity and begin our journey towards enlightenment.
Thereafter we need to realise that the Supreme Soul who in a metaphysical and metaphorical sense is every soul’s mother-father, friend and philosopher or spiritual guide and master, who is full of knowledge and Bliss, is always there to help and guide those who seek him.
He too is a self-luminous, infinitesimal point of conscient and non-physical light who constantly radiates vibrations of love, peace, divine light, spiritual might, bliss, etc - which a soul can clearly experience when it has established its metaphysical or mental link with HIM.
HE, the world’s most beloved mother-father, abides in the soul world or incorporeal world which is far beyond this phenomenal and ephemeral world of Matter.
It is beyond the sun and stars and the universe of elements and is a realm filled with divine light, called Brahm. So, when you begin your first meditation session or practice, let your thoughts well up naturally in the form of words as: “I am a soul, I am eternal, immortal, conscient, radiant and self-luminous infinitesimal, tiny little star or point, a nuclear-like unit of eternal spiritual energy, with qualities of love, peace, divine light, etc.
“I came into this phenomenal world from a spiritual realm, from beyond, from what is known as the Soul World, which is filled with divine light and serenity and calm.”
Thus, recapitulating the summary knowledge, let your mind enter into its meaning, penetrating behind the words and ideas into the transcendental reality they signify.
This will enable you to be free of all thoughts of your body and the environment and worldly affairs and gradually your mind will be engaged totally with the awareness of Supreme and HIS grace, HIS attributes, HIS divine and salubrious acts, HIS spiritual relationship, etc.
Getting thus immersed in these thoughts to the exclusion of all others, feel unity with the Divine.
By means of this steady flow of thought on HIM, you will reach a mental state or stage which transcends thought. In that state, one’s mind is seeing no other forms, images or goals but only the splendour of the Supreme Almighty.
In this state, you will experience bliss which cannot be described in words. Try it once and experience the magic yourself!
Ultimately, meditation is not about escaping life or withdrawing from responsibilities; it is about returning to one’s original inner strength. It is a quiet reminder that peace is not something to be achieved in the future, but something to be remembered in the present.
When practiced with this understanding and sincerity, meditation gradually transforms the way we think, respond, and live.
The outer world may remain the same, but the inner lens changes, and with it, our experience of life itself. Perhaps this is why meditation has survived centuries: not as a technique, but as a timeless path back to one’s true self.
(Rajyogi Brahma Kumar Nikunj Ji is a spiritual educator and popular columnist who contributes to publications across India, Nepal and the United Kingdom. He has published more than 9,000 articles.)
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